EU Will Hold Off on Retaliatory Tariffs as American Officials Recast Trade Deals

European Union officials are meeting Monday to discuss trade relations with America and China as the trading bloc holds off on imposing retaliatory tariffs in response to scheduled new tariffs that the Trump administration is now calling a matter of national security.America’s largest partner, representing 27 member nations, had been planning to impose countermeasures to the threatened 30 percent hike on European imports set to begin August 1. The delay of the hikes, which had been set to start Monday morning Brussels time, comes amid continuing talks with American officials.″This is now the time for negotiations,″ the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, told reporters at Brussels on Sunday. ″We have always been clear that we prefer a negotiated solution,” she said, noting that the EU “will continue to prepare countermeasures so we are fully prepared.″In his letter to the EU on Friday announcing the August 1 hikes, President Trump called the trade deficit a “major threat to our economy, and indeed, our national security.” On Sunday, the president’s National Economic Council director, Kevin Hassett, echoed the sentiment, describing all tariff negotiations, including those with nations with which America has a surplus, as a matter of national security.“The bottom line is that what we’re doing, absolutely, collectively across every country is we’re onshoring production in the U.S. to reduce the national emergency that is that we have a massive trade deficit, just putting us at risk should we need production in the U.S. because of the national security crisis,” Mr. Hassett told ABC’s “This Week on Sunday.” Mr. Hassett’s comments came in response to a question as to why America would impose tariffs on a nation like Brazil, with which America has a trade surplus.Mr. Trump enraged President Lula last week when he tied tariff increases of 50 percent to the trial of Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally who has been accused of trying to overthrow election results. Mr. Lula called Mr. Trump’s linkage of tariffs to internal politics “extremely outrageous.” Mr. Bolsonaro “didn’t just try to stage a coup. He tried to prepare my death,” Mr. Lula told Brazilian TV Globo. The national security cudgel is related to transshipping, or the practice of shipping goods to be repackaged by an ally that has lower tariff rates. Brazil, which ships 12 percent of its exports to America, is a close trading partner with China, which receives 28 percent of its exports. With close ties between Brazil and China, China’s foreign ministry stepped into the fray over the weekend, accusing Mr. Trump of using tariffs for “coercion, bullying,” and “interference in other countries.”China’s trade deficit with America is already the source of major contention, but its competitor status on the world market is a big driver of trade negotiations. China is the largest copper refiner in the world, and America’s key competition in the race to build electronics, alloys, construction materials, ships, solar panels, and an array of other commercial products and military equipment that require the versatile red metal. America annually imports more than 1 million metric tons of refined copper — or one-half of its copper supplies — primarily from Canada, Chile, and Peru, while China draws much of its ore from South America and the Democratic Republic of Congo and refines it at home. Mr. Trump recently announced a peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and its much smaller neighbor Rwanda with promises of greater investment in mineral rights by America, seemingly an attempt to drive a wedge between China and its African partner while America builds up its copper supply. On Friday, Mr. Trump said that imported copper would be subject to 50 percent tariffs. Mr. Hassett said that despite the delays in opening new copper mines and smelting in America, which could take five years to produce enough of the material to support American weapons building, tariffs are needed now to onshore American manufacturing. “As we look forward to the threats that America faces, the president decided that we have plenty of copper in the U.S., but not enough copper” for America’s military arsenal, he said. Mr. Hassett noted that predictions that putting levies on copper before America is up to speed producing it will drive up inflation mimic warnings about other import-driven inflation that did not pan out.On Sunday, Senate lawmakers also announced that they would give Mr. Trump the economic tools he needs to punish Russia and its allies over the war with Ukraine. Senator Graham said the plan would be to give Mr. Trump authority to impose tariffs as high as 500 percent on Russian allies like China, India, and Brazil in order to force President Putin to the peace table. “The only way you’re going to end this war is to get people who prop up Putin, make them choose between the American economy and helping Putin,” he said.While the attempt to browbeat Russia into submission has the support of European allies, with tariffs aiming to shore up American manufacturing and national security readiness, Ms. von der Leyen said the EU must look at diversifying its trade relationships. The EU’s trade with America totaled $2 trillion in 2024, primarily from pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments, and wine and spirits.

EU Will Hold Off on Retaliatory Tariffs as American Officials Recast Trade Deals

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